Quick hits on Covid: one bold bishop, and a plea for more

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 10, 2020 | In Quick Hits

While other American bishops hasten to encourage use of a Covid vaccine, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas is once again taking a strong stand. “I urge you to reject any vaccine that uses the remains of aborted children in research, testing, development, or production,” he writes. Some Catholic moralists would argue that he is too rigorous; distinctions can be drawn between the vaccines that actually use fetal tissues in production, and those that were merely tested using fetal tissues. But Bishop Strickland wants to establish a zero-tolerance policy, as a powerful witness in defense of unborn human life. And he makes the important point that this witness does not require rejection of all vaccines. “There are ethical vaccines in development which are worth waiting for,” he remarks.

No Covid vaccine is readily available in the US today. The vaccines that will soon be available are being rushed to market, and we still do not have complete information about their effectiveness and/or their potential side-effects. So there may be good reasons to take a “wait and see” attitude. Indeed for most Americans there probably won’t be any choice in the matter, since the vaccines will not be available to the general population for some time.

So Bishop Strickland’s point is worth noting. As long as we’re waiting, why not wait for—and lobby for—the development of a vaccine that will not undermine our pro-life witness?

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Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Matthew Hennessey asks Catholic bishops to hold firm on a related front:

There is no evidence that the virus is spreading in the churches, so my message to these bishops is this: Show some backbone. Open the churches. Get rid of the sign-up sheets. No more roped-off pews. No more 25% capacity. Call the faithful, young and old, to communion. Let the civil authorities try to shut it down. Chain yourselves to the altars if necessary. Be the heroes we need you to be.

While bishops have been restricting access to the sacraments, and explaining that the restrictions will save lives, Hennessey questions how many souls are being lost in the process. The bishops have acceded too easily, he writes, to the dictates of politicians who argue that religious worship is “non-essential.” “We are tired of watching our leaders kneel before junior-varsity Caesars,” he says. It’s time for bold bishops to open their churches, lest their people come to the conclusion that the sacraments aren’t that important after all.

“The alternative is subservience,” Hennessey concludes. “The alternative is empty pews forever.”